Talk:Einstein

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Two German senses:

2. (mockingly) Sherlock; a person who has stated something obvious, unaware of its obviousness

3. (sarcastic) a person that has not noticed the obvious or is perceived as unintelligent

Per the RFD of James Bond, these aren't separate senses of Einstein. Irony/sarcasm is a standard construction in most languages, and when you use a term sarcastically, you're not creating a new meaning for it, you're just using its usual meaning in a way that you don't actually agree with in order to make a point (not unlike hyperbole). If I say "Oh, yeah, that's a really beautiful painting(!) A real work of art(!)" to describe a painting I find hideous, I'm not using beautiful to mean ugly, and I'm not using work of art to mean monstrosity. I'm just saying something I don't believe, and undercutting it with a sarcastic tone of voice. Smurrayinchester (talk) 09:18, 14 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

I completely agree, sarcasm makes use of existing sense of words, it doesn't create new ones. Delete. Renard Migrant (talk) 11:59, 14 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

By the same token, this sense of Sherlock should also be deleted:

1. (humorous) A detective (from Sherlock Holmes), especially used ironically to address somebody who has stated the obvious.

It also mixes etymology and definition. --Hekaheka (talk) 20:07, 14 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

Except that Sherlock doesn't have a separate definition of "detective". It's also a bit weird to define it positively; as far as I know, the vast majority of uses in English would be in a negative sense.--Prosfilaes (talk) 09:12, 19 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

• Delete. Distinct from Sherlock, which is an element of the larger phrase, no shit, Sherlock. bd2412 T 05:10, 23 January 2015 (UTC)Reply

Deleted. bd2412 T 13:26, 10 March 2015 (UTC)Reply